Jail Time
by EbonyOsmosis
Summary: He kept waiting to hear that rough voice telling him to 'get up so we can get the hell outta here.' But it never came. -Rated for language.-


Jail Time

* * *

"_Oh, you really wanna bring up Peru?"_

"_You are _not_ still holding that over me."_

"_I was 15 Sully! I shoulda known that when I met you I'd be in prison within a year."_

"_You were headed that way all on your own, if you recall. Sides, I got you out, didn't I? I always getcha out."_

* * *

Nate waited for his partner, wondering what in the world could have Sully taking so long. It was a simple task to check out the museum, and the older man should have been back five minutes ago. All he had to do was make his rounds inside to get a layout of the building while Nate did the same on the outside. He'd finished ten minutes ago but Sully was still nowhere to be found. "C'mon Sully, what are you doing?" he wondered aloud. If they hung around too long people would start to get suspicious.

But a commotion at the museum caught his attention. A crowd of people were being led out the front doors, but a flash of familiar green shirt caught his eye in the crowd. The man slipped away from the crowd, and Nate made to go follow him but a hand on his shoulder stopped the boy.

"Hey you! What are you doing here?" the man demanded, and judging by his uniform he was clearly police. Nate felt his stomach drop. Had they noticed him casing the grounds?

"What is it?" he asked, putting on his best innocent kid act. "I didn't do anything!"

"Nice try kid, come with me!" the man ordered, placing another hand on Nate's shoulder and directing him away from Sully and the museum. The boy panicked and tried to dart away, but the man held a bruising grip on his upper arm to prevent him from escaping. He directed Nate through the city streets until they came to the prison, and the boy felt his heart plummet. Where was Sully?

He started struggling harder as they near the prison, and actually managed to slip away at one point. But the man reached out and hooked the back of his shirt, hauling Nate back and securing him once more. "You can't do this!" the boy protested. "I didn't do anything!"

"Shut up!" the cop ordered, leading them into the building and down a long hallway. Faces stared at them curiously from within multiple jail cells as they passed, most of them unconcerned or amused at the boy's treatment.

"Let me go!" he snarled, still trying to break loose from the hold he was in. The man just gave him a rough shove, making the boy stumble in an attempt to stay upright. Before he could catch his bearings, he was shoved again into a dingy prison cell. Nate almost lost his footing this time, but managed to catch himself on the wall before he could go down. He turned around to give his captor an earful, but the man was already gone.

The boy huffed and kicked out one foot in petulant retaliation, rattling the bars with a hollow clang. "Jackass," he murmured. He wandered over to the stone bench against the wall, sitting down noisily and stretching his legs out. Now it was just a waiting game for Sully to come bail him out. He knew the man had connections and would be pulling some strings. He just hoped it wouldn't take too long.

He'd never been in prison before, and he quickly deduced that this was a very tame foreign prison. He'd heard stories about being locked up in places like this, but so far no one came to beat him, and they hadn't stuck him in a cell with murderous criminals that wanted to torture him for fun. The bread they gave him was stale beyond belief, but so far that was the only act of abuse or torture he'd seen. This place was at least better than the orphanage, where he'd had to share a room with three other kids and listen to the nuns lecture all day. He'd never imagined prison could look favorable to something else, but there it was.

But then, even with the lack of nuns with rulers and bible study, this place was pretty damn boring. A few hours into his stay he tried yelling down the hall to ask for his sketch book, but the guard just ignored him. When he tried again another hour later, someone threw a stone down the hall and into his cell. It didn't even come close to hitting him, but Nate definitely got the message and stopped asking. Not that there was anything to draw. He liked drawing from reference, like people and buildings. There was nothing in here but shoddy stonework and some metal bars.

Before he'd realized that he'd drifted into his thoughts, Nate realized the sun was setting through the barred window. If it was already sunset he must have been in here at least eight hours so far. Surely that would have been enough time for Sully to work his magic and get him out? Maybe there was too much resistance against bribery, or they were refusing to let him out on bail. But that didn't make sense. Why would they bother hanging onto a kid while money was being wafted about as incentive for release?

As the sun drifted further down and Nate was still thinking on the situation, he came to the conclusion that Sully was going to break him out. The man had probably tried to get him released during the day, but no one would bend. _Okay, _he thought to himself, buckling down for a few more hours of wall study. _Gotta give the guy a little time to work. He'll come through._

That night, Nate stayed up, watching the hall outside his cell with keen eyes. Night would be the time that Sully would come for him, so he wanted to be up and ready to go when the man came to break him out. He spent all day and the first half of the night observing every nook and cranny of the cell, everything about the cell door and barred window. There was a storm drain in the center of the floor, but that wouldn't help him so he didn't put too much stock into it. The case was that he would be absolutely ready when the time came, and he'd know every inch of the cell. That would make it easier for them to get out.

But as the hours wound by and he saw the moon move into and back out of sight, he started to feel a tinge of worry. But Nate had to stop himself and think rationally. Maybe Sully was still scoping things out, or he didn't know which cell he was in yet. Maybe he was still trying in a last effort to do things the non violent way. Maybe he just hadn't found the right official to bribe, because legality sure wouldn't have anything to do with it. He wasn't a dangerous criminal, so someone would be willing to let him go with a little incentive.

No, he wouldn't doubt Sully just yet. He had faith in his mentor. They had been working together for almost a year now, and the man had eventually gained Nate's trust. He didn't dole that out lightly, especially with adults. Sully must be planning something to get him out. Just in case, he stayed up for the rest of the night, just to be prepared.

But as dawn lit up his cell in a pale orange glow, he stared with heavy eyes at the far end of the cell. Now he felt stupid for staying up all night, as weariness clawed his eyelids and begged for a nap. Maybe he'd wait a little, in case Sully was waiting til morning with a plan. But his need for rest won out, so Nate carefully inched down onto the stone bench, letting his eyes close as his body adjusted to the uncomfortable surface. It had been quite a few months since he'd had to sleep on the ground, but he hadn't forgotten how to do it. Sully had yet to shake the street kid out of him.

He would just rest his eyes for a little bit. They would wake him up when someone finally allowed Sully to post his bail.

* * *

But days passed without event. The sun rose and fell, and his cell sat unchanged to the point where days started to blur together. He wasn't sure how long it had been since they'd tried to case the museum, but he knew it was somewhere between one and two weeks so far. His clothes were dirty and the little bit of weight he'd started to put on in the last year was receding with the bread and water diet. He found his days consisting of staring at the wall, curled up on the bench in the corner of the cell. He kept waiting to hear that rough voice telling him to 'get up so we can get the hell outta here.'

But it never came. He'd held out for days, coming up with reasons and excuses why it would take so long. But in the end, all of these started to swirl together in his head into confused queries. It was all running into one stream of thought that started nagging him day and night, over and over because the deadening silence would not let him think anything else.

Sully had left him.

Something in his gut twisted painfully upon realization, his throat tightening in a way he hadn't felt in years, not since the first time a nun slapped him with a ruler. This feeling was awfully similar to that. Like a sudden shocking strike, followed by a pain that slowly went numb over time. He wouldn't let himself fall prey to that feeling, though. He'd been on his own for so long, he should have known better than to rely on an adult. He'd let himself get attached to his mentor, where he should have instead kept his distance for situations like this.

But he hadn't. He'd fallen into that pitfall, and now it had bitten him in the ass. The feeling sure stung, in some ways much more than physical pain. He hadn't trusted anyone in years, then he gave in and trusted Sully and look where it got him. Up a creek without a paddle and a sour feeling in his gut. Because where he would normally rely on himself in this situation, he'd already gone over the cell multiple times. He knew every inch of it, and there were no loose bars, no crumbling stones, and nothing he could use to pick the lock. Everything was fairly well constructed.

In short, he was well and thoroughly screwed.

* * *

He was sure it had been at least three weeks now. The only thing he could do with himself was sit on the stone bench and rest his forehead on the wall, staring at the minute details of the concrete until everything blurred out of focus. The last thing he had was the ring. 'Sic Parvis Magna' stared up at him as he read the words over and over, like Drake was speaking to him beyond the grave. But what greatness had he accomplished? Not much thus far, nothing worth telling once he got out of here.

He sighed and tucked the ring back into his shirt, feeling like he'd failed his ancestor in a most spectacular manner.

He stayed like this, dejected, curled towards the wall for several more hours before something broke the silence. Something like a relieved laugh and a scoff, that familiar smell of cigars and aftershave wafting into the stale air of his cell. "Finally! There you are!"

At first Nate didn't move. Was he hearing things now? He gripped his hands tighter where they rested over his arms, the fabric of his shirt bunching under tense fingers as he continued to stare at the wall.

"Nate?" the voice asked again, sounding concerned. "Hey kid, you okay?"

Finally, he released himself from his position, his body slightly sore from being held in the same spot for so long. When Nate glanced over his shoulder, there he was in the flesh, followed by the guard who had thrown him into the cell weeks ago. The man came and unlocked the door, sliding it open and allowing the visitor to enter. "Sully?" Nate asked quietly, setting his feet down on the floor and turning to face the man.

"Hey kid, you alright? Did they hurt you?" Sully asked, glancing over him and looking for injury. The kid was a bit thinner then when he last saw him, but overall no worse for wear.

"No, they didn't," the boy admitted, standing up. "I just... I had thought..." he trailed off, now feeling guilty for thinking such a thing.

It took him a few moments to get what the kid was implying, and when Sully realized how it must have looked he felt like he'd been socked in the gut. He set a hand on Nate's shoulder and hesitated only a moment before pulling him into a hug. "Shit, I'm sorry kid. I didn't mean to take so damn long. I just didn't know where they took you and no one would say anything. I had to track you down."

Nate, throughout this explanation, remained still and slightly wary in the man's grasp. Sully had never hugged him before. He'd given plenty of pats on the shoulder, had ruffled his hair and gave him playful shoves, but he'd never hugged Nate before. He was unsure of how to handle this, but finally his brain just stopped trying to decipher the meaning and he returned the hug, almost desperately. The relief he felt was like a physical force, because he'd not been abandoned like his father had done. He still felt bad for assuming Sully would leave him to rot, but it was just such a relief to know he hadn't been left behind.

Finally when they separated, Sully gave him a pat on the back and started to guide him out of the cell. "C'mon kid, let's get the hell outta here," he said, leading the way down the hall and past more prison cells. They collected Nate's messenger bag along the way before stepping outside. The boy squinted as the bright glare of the sun met his eyes, unused to full daylight after being in the dim cell for so long. But slowly, his eyesight started to adjust as Sully waited patiently at his side. Then the light started to feel good, and the passing breeze was a stark contrast to the musty prison.

"You okay?" Sully asked lightly, nudging him.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," Nate replied.

The older man sighed and rubbed the back of his head, trying to gather his thoughts for what had to be said. He was never good that these kinds of things, speaking truthfully without using charm or deceit. But the kid deserved that much from him at least. He paused a moment to take a breath before speaking. "Listen, kid, I really am sorry. You shouldn't have had to sit in that place for three weeks. If it were up to me you wouldn't have been in there for even an hour."

"I know Sully, its okay," Nate assured softly, a small smile on his face. "It did take two weeks for me to think you weren't coming, but I'm still sorry for doubting you."

"Well, hey, I would've doubted me too. Just remember Nate, I'll always getcha out," Sully guaranteed, pulling the kid close alongside him in a one armed hug as they walked.

"I know. Thanks, Sully," the boy said as a smile appeared on his face.

As they walked back to where Sully had been staying, laughing and joking after being separated for three weeks, Nate came to an important conclusion. He hadn't been mistaken in trusting this man. In fact, Nate felt like he couldn't have made a better choice, if he'd had to pick just one person. While his faith had been shaken from his time in prison, the teen now knew without a doubt that Sully would never abandon him.

He'd given in and trusted Sully, and look where it'd gotten him. Side by side with a partner, a mentor, and an unshakeable friend.

He wouldn't have it any other way.


End file.
